


The Astronomer's Son

by Here_Be_Hyperfixations



Series: Drabbles [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Allow me to fix that, Drabble, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, It's real mama Nocturna hours, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd Pre-Crisis, Jason Todd is Robin, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Small Jason Todd, There's a lack of fics for Nocturna and bby Jay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:42:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26448721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Here_Be_Hyperfixations/pseuds/Here_Be_Hyperfixations
Summary: When she'd first taken in the second Robin, she hadn't expected to become so attached. Now here she was, sitting in her observatory with her son sitting contently in her lap.
Relationships: Jason Todd & Nocturna
Series: Drabbles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1922653
Comments: 14
Kudos: 60





	The Astronomer's Son

“Hey uh, Ms. Knight?” Natalia spun her chair towards the door to her observatory.

“Yes Jay?”

Jason stood half in the doorway; a thick quilt wrapped around his bony shoulders. His face was pale and blotchy with fever, and the eleven-year old’s hair was completely disheveled. Jason’s nose scrunched, masking a small sniffle, and his brows furrowed above slow blinking, squinting eyes. Natalia smiled softly, the sight was adorable, if not so worrying.

“I was wonderin’ if I could sit with ya”, the child murmured. His feet shuffled lightly on the ground and he leaned more heavily on the doorframe.

“You should be in bed resting.”

She crossed the room in long strides, kneeling down to look at her ward. He swayed a bit. Natalia pressed her hand to Jason’s forehead, huffing a soft chuckle when the boy’s eyes fluttered closed and he leaned into her palm.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

His lips pursed and Natalia knew she had gotten it in one.

“Wasn’t anythin’ too bad,” he grumbled, eyes now opened and focused on the ground, “just kinda don’t wanna be alone right now. I-I promise I won’t be a distraction or anythin’…”

Natalia rolled her eyes – of course he was worried about interrupting her work. She stood up, animatedly stretching her back and arms.

“Well I believe I could use a break. Let’s go make some tea, shall we?”

She nudged him back through the door, down the hall, and into the house’s kitchen. Natalia flicked on the lights as Jason nestled into a chair. She pulled out the already warmed kettle of water – she hadn’t been lying about that break – and filled two mugs.

They made their tea in relative silence, but Natalia had a close eye on Jason. He had come down with a nasty cold recently – apparently his immune system had been compromised from years of malnutrition and living on the streets. Natalia’s lips tugged into a frown. Despite her winning Jason’s court case, he still went out as Robin with Bruce. It…concerned her. In the short time she had known him, she felt herself growing attached to the kid. Whereas originally, she had planned on using him to get to the Bat, almost as soon as she became his legal guardian, her end goal changed…or rather it completely disintegrated.

Natalia had enough self-awareness to recognize that the boy was less of a ward and more of a son to her, and she’d be damned if she let that slip away.

“If you would like, I hear that talking about things that have upset you is a good way to…move past their influences, or at least deal with them. You do not have to, though.”

Jason clutched his mug to his chest, curling in on himself.

“Just…bad memories – from before Robin’n’all that…”

Natalia nodded. She knew a bit about Jason’s life before Bruce Wayne, why he feared most men, why he was startlingly mature for his age, but decided to wait for him to tell her the rest on his own terms.

Once their tea had been finished, Natalia collected their mugs, depositing them in the sink to be dealt with at a later time. If he didn’t feel like talking, a distraction would probably help.

“Why don’t you come stargaze with me, and I’ll tell you about the constellations?”

Jason perked up, always excited with the idea of learning something new. Natalia smiled, and led him back to the observatory. She sat in her chair, patting her thigh and gesturing for Jason to join her. He padded over and Natalia lifted him into her lap, winding her arms around the blanket cocoon.

Settled in with her son safe and cozy, Natalia began to speak, pointing out constellations and recanting old tales about the origins of their names. Jason listened intently, asking questions, and tracing the figures Natalia had drawn in the sky.

By the time the sun had begun to ascend and the stars retreated from the blanket of day, the astronomer’s son was lost in a deep, uninterrupted sleep.


End file.
